WINNING an election doesnt just offer the chance to govern the country. It offers a chance to feel morally and intellectually superior to the party youve just beaten. This is an inescapable aspect of democratic culture: no matter what reason tells us about the vagaries of politics, something in the American subconscious assumes that the voice of the people really is the voice of God, and that being part of a winning coalition must be a sign that youre His chosen one as well.

This means the losing coalition must be doomed to wander east of Eden, and liberals have been having a good time with this idea of late. Those poor, benighted Republicans! runs the subtext of their postelection commentary. They cant read polls! They cant reach Hispanics! They dont understand women! They dont have a team of Silicon Valley sorcerers running their turnout operations!

Back in 2011, the Obama White House earned some mild mockery for its win the future slogan. But now that the president has been re-elected, the liberal conventional wisdom is that the Democrats have done just that  that Republicans are now Radio Shack to their Apple store, The Waltons to their Modern Family, a mediocre Norman Rockwell to their digital-age mosaic.

Maybe its too soon to pierce this cloud of postelection smugness. But in the spirit of friendly correction  or, O.K., maybe curmudgeonly annoyance  let me point out some slightly more unpleasant truths about the future that liberalism seems to be winning.

Liberals look at the Obama majority and see a coalition bound together by enlightened values  reason rather than superstition, tolerance rather than bigotry, equality rather than hierarchy. But its just as easy to see a coalition created by social disintegration and unified by economic fear.

Read the comments at the original site. Cut through all the baloney, and what do you see? Fear. The Democrat leaders are just grifters. they’re out to make themselves some money. The Democrat voters are another story. The Democrat party uses psychologists and sociologists while the Republican party uses political scientists. We can talk about demographics and voting behaviors and the effectivess of types of advertising. The Democrats play on people’s fears. Voting is a human behavior, it’s not just a tabulation of numbers.
The Democrats talk to fearful young people and minorities and women and tell them that the Republicans want to starve them and leave them ill.
The Democrats talk to young men and women and tell them that the Republicans want to enslave them with needy babies.
The Democrats talk to the frightened homosexuals and tell them that the Republicans want them to be lonely and alone.
The Democrats talk to the government employees and tell them that the Republicans want to throw them out on the street to starve to death.
When you think about what the Democrats are doing, you see that the leaders are cruel and self-serving. It’s actually quite sickening.
Look at Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs. Maslow says that as the lower needs are met, we move up his chart. The goal is to become a Self-Actualized person. I think that’s what the Republicans want. We see that as independence, strength, liberty, freedom. Do the Democrat leaders want the same thing? Would a Self-Actualized person want more government control of their life? The Democrats need to keep our citizens at the lower part of Maslow’s chart. How can they keep them there when those needs have actually been met? Fear. I call this the blueunicorn6 Addendum To Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs. You can keep people from developing and moving up to the higher stages with fear. The Democrats get people to vote for them through fear. This needs to be communicated to all.

7
posted on 11/17/2012 6:08:59 PM PST
by blueunicorn6
("A crack shot and a good dancer")

It's quite possible that absent voter fraud, Romney would have won a majority of the electoral votes. Whether voter fraud was extensive enough to account for Obama's popular vote plurality is harder to say, but possible.

Romney had several things going against him that may not be true next time--his Mormon religion, his diffidence about criticizing the President personally or touting his own virtues, and the fact that the rules were different for a black candidate. The first and third are not likely to be true in 2016 unless the GOP nominates Glen Beck and the 'Rats nominate Michelle.

First of all, these kinds of nuances do not matter to a party dedicated to winning by any means possible. The country is either at or just beyond the tipping point or it isn’t, and no opinion other than the collective, voting opinion makes any difference.

“What unites all of these stories is the growing failure of Americas local associations  civic, familial, religious  to foster stability, encourage solidarity and make mobility possible.”

I don’t put all of those “associations” into one pot. That these things are failing is probably true. That the people who relish, wallow in, or fete their failure look to the Dems as their salvation is the tragedy. As others have pointed out, 0bama is bad enough, but the disaster is that voters voted to re-elect such a sub-mediocre candidate in such a sub-mediocre economy and with so many other indications of dismal competence if not outright criminality if not treason. FOR THE FIRST TIME, there is comfort and ratification in these failings. Indeed, it is almost like a cloak that is being eagerly donned. We used to root for the little guy, the underdog, but now we root for the heavy hand of big brother and worship its powers, right or wrong. This has NEVER been the case before. The US has been the upstart, the sassy rebel who had cleverness and guts on its side. And if that is now dead, then there is little to do but to stand aside and let the forces work their voodoo until there isn’t anything to argue about any more. Maybe, with a fourth of the population in breadlines 2-3 years from now, some will wake up and stop blaming GWBush. Then, the Repubs may stand a chance for reconsideration. But at that point, indeed, well before, I don’t see much chance of a salvageable country existing. We’ll go right into Sovietism and be very lucky if we can eventually back things off to Swedenism. The US has never been a country that has so embraced rank failure and leadership malfeasance. Now it seems like it’s the “in” thing. I acknowledge this is a pessimistic view. But if it’s true, it is going to play out, like it or not, for as long as it takes.

RE :” Consider the Hispanic vote. Are Democrats winning Hispanics because they put forward a more welcoming face than Republicans do  one more in keeping with Americas tradition of assimilating migrants yearning to breathe free? Yes, up to a point. But theyre also winning recent immigrants because those immigrants often arent assimilating successfully  or worse, are assimilating downward, thanks to rising out-of-wedlock birthrates and high dropout rates. The Democratic edge among Hispanics depends heavily on these darker trends: the weaker that families and communities are, the more necessary government support inevitably seems. Likewise with the growing number of unmarried Americans, especially unmarried women. Yes, social issues like abortion help explain why these voters lean Democratic. But the more important explanation is that single life is generally more insecure and chaotic than married life, and single life with children  which is now commonplace for women under 30  is almost impossible to navigate without the support the welfare state provides. What unites all of these stories is the growing failure of Americas local associations  civic, familial, religious  to foster stability, encourage solidarity and make mobility possible. This is a crisis that the Republican Party often badly misunderstands, casting Democratic-leaning voters as lazy moochers or spoiled children seeking gifts (as a certain former Republican presidential nominee would have it) rather than recognizing the reality of their economic struggles. “

This is thoughtful. The liberals are winning those groups primarily because so many of them in the US are failing and so they look to Obama/Dems/gubmnt to be their Dad/family. He says if these people were successfully functional then they wouldn't vote Dems.

And he says that Republicans/ Romney) do their best to turn them off by calling them moochers which didn't work that well this time.

17
posted on 11/17/2012 6:52:37 PM PST
by sickoflibs
(How long before cry-Bohner caves to O again? They took the House for what?)

They’re not all gloating. Some are angry due to such things as the format flip of KPOJ Portland from liberal talk to sports, and KFNQ Seattle to the same thing. See some of this stuff in this liberal blog which blames KPOJ’s owner, the Clear Channel/Bain/Romney Hate Machine and the other owner,
the CBS Hate Machine

>>That’s exactly what Clear Channel did when they replaced the popular Stephanie Miller Show with the rightwing Glenn Beck program on San Francisco’s progressive Green 960 earlier this year, despite his much lower ratings in the same time slot, on the same station, ever since...While Rightwing talk radio is allowed to propagandize over our public airwaves in favor of supposed “free-market” competition, there is no such free-market competition in the talk radio business itself.

A comment:
>>Bain Capital makes a mockery of capitalism - buying Clearchannel radio just to load it up with 3.4 billion in debt they pay to themselves as bonuses while clearchannel goes bankrupt and liberal talk radio is canceled all over the nation. To have no liberal talk radio stations in san Francisco OR Portland Ore is prima facie evidence that Bain has no intention whatsoever of serving the public good. Bain needs to be broken up before they do more damage to the country.

Another:
>>SHAME on Bain Capital-owned Clear Channel (isn’t Bain the one with Mitt Romney as majority stockholder?!) killing KPOJ, the only commercial Progressive talk radio station in Portland, one of the nation’s most progressive cities, while leaving their two “competing” Clear Channel-owned Rightwing stations in the same market intact. As well as a Seattle owned progressive radio show. How many others to come?! NO, NO, NO. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME. Everyone, let’s fight this right of free speech AND force the courts to issue injunctions on anti-trust laws. PLEASE! IT’S ALL OF US AT RISK - AGAIN - OF THE POWERFUL AND RICH.

Full meltdown mode continues. And it’s all OUR fault, darn it :) And for the record, liberals, the airwaves do NOT belong to the people. They belong to companies great and small that invest money and pay for the right to broadcast WHAT THEY WANT (freedom of speech/choice) and what will make money. Liberal talk doesn’t make money. Sports (or
conservative talk) does.

But clearly the far right controls much of the media don’t they? And note the bit about the “only commercial prog talk station in town”. Yes, the only commercial one. I am sure there are some non-commercial ones living off taxpayer
dollars. It’s called NPR...

In a way, it's not that surprising that this article was published in the New York Times. In their heyday, Progressives were explicitly elitist. In the 1920s, for example, the books of Walter Lippmann was the friendly and earnest analog for H.L. Mencken's Notes On Democracy. I recall Lippmann giving the book a favourable, if guarded, review. As I'm sure you know, Progressives never quite shucked off their roots.

This is thoughtful. The liberals are winning those groups primarily because so many of them in the US are failing and so they look to Obama/Dems/gubmnt to be their Dad/family. He says if these people were successfully functional then they wouldn't vote Dems.

I wish it were true that when they become economically successful they quit voting Democrat, But many will stay with the party, and it's for that very same reason you'll find so many Italians, Jews and Irish voting for Democrats. When their grand-parents got off the boats, the Democrat ward bosses were there to help them get work, find a place to live, and in return, get their votes. This wasn't done by government spending, but by politicians building their bases. And it was in sharp contrast to what the immigrants perceived as the greedy business owners.

This sort of thing tends to make people loyal for life, and we've seen that played out for the past 80 years. Even though the Democrat voters continued to move up the economic ladder, they have the memory of their sainted Grandmother voting straight Democrat all her life, and talking bad about the business owners of her day, who were likely Republican.

RE :”This sort of thing tends to make people loyal for life, and we've seen that played out for the past 80 years. Even though the Democrat voters continued to move up the economic ladder, they have the memory of their sainted Grandmother voting straight Democrat all her life, and talking bad about the business owners of her day, who were likely Republican.”

I can add to that.

I know non-white immigrants here in Maryland who went to college (free naturally) then got a government job and they worship Obama as being like them. I mean it's Jim Jones worship. And one black immigrant who worships Obama told me that illegal immigration is nothing more than paper-work and that American blacks are lazy and don't want to work so we need illegals to work here.

Surprisingly I know black cleaning lady (yes a woman) who is real African American, roots in this country, who voted against Obama twice. She has told me many times that she thinks Obama is a con-man who doesn't know what he is doing. And she doesn't like illegals being put in front of the line. I wish there were more blacks like her.

If Republicans were smart (which they obviously are not) they would split some of the Dem groups apart and play them against each other.

21
posted on 11/17/2012 8:26:36 PM PST
by sickoflibs
(How long before cry-Bohner caves to O again? They took the House for what?)

There have been a multitude of lib scribblers telling the Pubbies what they have to do....which is basically pander like they do. They think they don’t know something deep and meaningful, but they don’t really know anything. Just how to pander. The Democrat Party doesn’t stand for anything except legalizing immorality and giving away other people’s money. That’s it.

The Election proved nothing except Liberals made Thievery mainstream. They prefer to be Ruled, not Governed, thinking their Leaders will only control and economically enslave their Enemies (that would be people like us).

Gun Control, Socializing Healthcare and punitive Taxation are their weapons of choice. The Democrats Vote against their fellow Citizens because they feel entitled to what they possess. It is all very simple.

Governance requires Decency, which they lack. All that is required when dealing with the Vermin that supported Obama, (and they are Vermin, nothing more), is to ask them how much of someone else’s Labor and Property will be required to satisfy their needs?

You see, there is never enough and there never will be.

Liberal / Progressive Utopia is a dream, but they can never describe it without using platitudes such as Hope, Change and Forward. The Good Germans garnered more Votes than we did and there will be hell to pay once a match is lit.

Obama has done such a great job in governing that none of his supporters even mentions what a great job he’s done. Their victory is mostly based on the one value they share, which is contempt for the rest of America who do not support the decline of America. And, apparently they didn’t even notice, while they maintained Obama in the White House they do not control all of the government. They want a totalitarian government, but they don’t have it and will be greatly disappointed because of not having absolute control.

THE OBAMA WRAP With the flawed admin of Ohaha, America has witnessed the consequences of a generation inculcated with moral relativity and situation ethics. They clearly see themselves as "deconstructionists"----savagely committed to tearing down America's traditions.

Every manaical official govt act is dedicated to chipping away at the bulwark of American freedoms.

They are a virulent anti-American plague of religion haters.......vacant, surly Me-First humanoids who worship at The Church of Whatever Works For Me. Cadres of self-absorbed punks squatting in govt are clearly disturbed---obsessed with religious cleansing and kicking so/con Repubs to the curb.

The Ohaha savages duped the citizenry, led us over a multi-trillion dollar deficit cliff, into massive corrupt bailouts, and atrocities like amnesty.

Their motto: "Everything For Us--Nothing For You."

That same generation inculcated with moral relativity and situation ethics has segued into The Entitlement Generation---better known as "Pay Me--I'm a Victim.

We need to remember that the Obamanoids are ruthless predators w/ no empathy for others and no remorse, anti-social psychopaths who recognize no moral boundaries--aggressively going after what they want, irregardless of the consequences to others.

These people are even scarier in triumph, when they've clearly mocked democracy and stolen the election

Paraphrasing Saul Alinsky----the author of evil anti-religious satanism......"they do not have a fixed truth -- truth to them is relative and changing..... they are free from the shackles of dogma."

” Surprisingly I know black cleaning lady (yes a woman) who is real African American, roots in this country, who voted against Obama twice. She has told me many times that she thinks Obama is a con-man who doesn’t know what he is doing.”

Blacks outside of the United States have much more in common with your average white guy here. They weren’t taught to hate us like American blacks have been.

I'm a little late getting to this thread. What I usually do is leave a tab open to FR all the time. Sometimes I don't get back for days. I'll go ahead and read back thru the posts until I get to where I left off the time before, then finally refresh to the current day and start reading backwards again. Can't miss anything on FR don'cha know...

Anyway, this thread reminds me of something I've been thinking about lately and I've been pondering writing a letter to the editor of our local leftwing rag regarding my thoughts.

My thoughts are far from original but I want to ask our local leftwing rag readers to name one redeeming quality that zero has without bringing up the opposition or the horrible things the opposition wants to do the poor downtrodden 'folks'. Is there anything noteworthy he's done or any inspiring quality he exhibits to merit the office he 'occupies' besides the fact that he's been a useless quota-filler all of his life?

/random thought mode off thanks for indulging me

41
posted on 11/19/2012 7:20:19 PM PST
by Looking4Truth
(Leave it to some angry, frustrated liberal do-gooder to screw things up for the rest of us.)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.